Synopsis

A spaceship goes to Venus to collect scientific data about the palnet’s atmosphere and surface. One of the two crewmembers is Eric, a combination man and machine.

History

First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1965

1965 Nebula finalist for best short story.

Review

Hard science fiction done well. This is all about a science and tech issue with an advanced spacecraft control system. The science sounds spot on, but it is more advanced that anything we have, so there must be some fiction to it. Niven does a great job hiding that. As far as writing, the characters are really good for such a short story and exhibit a good amount of humor. The story moves along fast and is gripping. This is an example of the best of this sort of story, similar in many ways to Asimov’s robot stories from the 40s. Recommended.